More DACA Recipients Than Ever Before Could See Their DACA Expire in October
Without Action, More DACA Recipients Than Ever Before Could See Their DACA Expire in October
By Nicole Prchal Svajlenka Posted on August 15, 2019, 6:55 am
https://cdn.americanprogress.org/con...n-1024x683.jpgGetty/Andrew Caballero-ReynoldsThe Supreme Court building is seen on July 16, 2019, in Washington.
This column contains corrections.
On November 12, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether the Trump administration’s termination of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) was legal.
Although the administration announced the rescission of DACA in September 2017, advocates and states filed multiple lawsuits challenging the decision, and in January 2018, the first federal court to consider the issue entered a preliminary injunction permitting individuals who have, or who once had, DACA to apply to renew their protections.
As this and other legal challenges worked their way through the court system, federal courts in two other cases agreed that the termination of DACA was likely unlawful. DACA’s future remains uncertain.
And this October presents DACA recipients, immigrants’ rights organizations, legal service providers, and other stakeholders with their greatest mobilization challenge to date.
In October alone, nearly 56,000 DACA recipients will see their protections expire if they do not successfully apply to renew—the most potential expirations of any month since the renewal process reopened in January 2018.
Why is October likely to see such large numbers?
When former Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the rescission of DACA on September 5, 2017, he also announced that any Dreamer whose DACA was set to expire between that date and March 5, 2018, could apply for renewal before October 5, 2017.
While some Dreamers with DACA expirations in fall 2017 had already applied for renewal, 75,600 DACA recipients applied during that one-month period.
Because two-year DACA renewals were granted as of the date of adjudication, it is this cohort of DACA recipients—as well as others who likely applied in the weeks before the rescission announcement—that will see their protections expire beginning in October 2019.
https://www.americanprogress.org/iss...xpire-october/
